Youth unemployment is now one of the greatest challenges facing the country. Youth unemployment is the highest since records began.  Nearly 1½ million young people are currently not in education, employment or training –   over 1 in 5 of all young people.

Swindon has been particularly hard hit – identified as a youth unemployment hot spot by the recent report by the Association of Chief executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACVO).  The percentage of young people (18-24) out of work in Swindon has more than trebled from 2.5% in 2000 to 8.8% in 2011.

There is a real danger we create a lost generation.  We know how corrosive and damaging unemployment is to local communities, and how demoralising the search for work can be.

For young people, long-term unemployment scars for life. It means lower earnings, more unemployment, and more ill health later in life. It means more inequality between rich and poor.

It also affects young people’s mental and physical health. It increases susceptibility to illness, mental stress, and helplessness, and loss of self-esteem leading to depression.

Youth unemployment means that those people affected are more likely to be unemployed and welfare-dependent later in life and it creates a long term divide in aspiration passed down the generations.  According to the Princes Trust 25% of those from deprived homes believe that ‘few’ or ‘none’ of their career goals are achievable.

Studies have found that increases in youth unemployment relate to increases in burglaries, thefts and drug offences.  Overall it is it is urgent that we take action to tackle youth unemployment.

Unfortunately at a time when we need to create new jobs and open the door for opportunity, many of the key support mechanisms have been dismantled.

•          The Future Jobs Fund, cut

•          The Connexions Service, Cut

•          EMA’s cut

•          And Tuition Fees Trebled

The ACVO report recommends 3 key strategies to tackle youth unemployment:

1. Young people need more job opportunities:

It calls for a Youth Contract Work Programme and for young people to be guaranteed a part-time ‘First Step’ job as a stepping stone to unsupported employment.

2. Young people need better preparation and motivation for work

The raising of the education participation age from 16 to 18 is a massive moment for the country.  They also call for the creation of national Job Ready programme for those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed.

3. The creation of Youth Employment Zones

Starting in the youth unemployment ‘hotspots’ across Britain, the key organisations responsible for tacking youth unemployment should come together and coordinate their efforts.  It must become everybody’s business to get young people into work.

Tackling Youth Unemployment is one of political challenges of our times.  It is a challenge we must face together.  It is essential that we develop a clear strategy for Swindon and make a real positive difference to the future of young people across our town.

Mass unemployment destroys the social morale of communities and forcing young people who have completed their training for work to remain idle is Tory politics of the vilest nature. It leads to disillusionment and rings true of Thatcher’s “laissez faire” leave it to the market approach. In Swindon young people need know that Tory policies are not working for them and only Labour has new ideas to tackle youth unemployment.

Labour’s solution to Osborne’s failed plan A and Cameron’s Tory laissez faire attitude to young people will be to tax bankers bonuses and create 100,000 jobs for young people.

People still fear for their job security as redundancies climb. The Office of National Statistics reports that there were 164,000 redundancies in September to November 2011, up 14,000 on the previous quarter and 5,000 on the year. When will Osborne ditch his plan A and accept that it isn’t working?

Youth unemployment hit a record high today – raising worries that Britain’s and Swindon’s young people could become a ”lost generation” who cannot find work despite the fact that the recession ended more than a year ago (thanks to the Labour Government).  The total number of adults under 25 who are out of work moved close to the 1 million mark in the three months to November, rising by 32,000 to 951,000. This pushed the youth unemployment rate up to 20.3%, which is also the highest level since records began in 1992.

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The rise in the number of jobless at 35,000 was entirely driven by the public sector job losses, where employment fell by 33,000. However, the private sector failed to take up the additional job losses, with employment numbers  remaining unchanged. The government is heavily relying on private sector to compensate by creating new jobs for an estimated 330,000 public sector redundancies over the next four years due to government public service cuts. Can it do it?

Employment amongst 16-24 year olds was up by 20% and overall unemployment was up by almost 8% but in the southwest it was down by 0.3%  There was also an increase of 22,000 inactive people registered. Is that  people on pensions of working age?

I believe now more than before that  2011/12 is going to be very harsh and I expect at Christmas 2011 unemployment it will be higher than it is now.  At present with such bleak prospects have we any other choice to keep the economy from stalling other  than we must all continue to  fight the cuts?

The Tories are spending millions (literally) on their poster campaigns and must be helping the economy doing this. This is a nice picture of Gordon that I spotted at the Moonrakers Roundabout, but it’s a pity that the Conservatives didn’t check the facts before printing it…

… the facts are that, if we exclude the full-time students from youth ‘unemployment’ (and that is the definition of the International Labour Organisation), there are 657,000 young people who are unemployed, compared to 830,000 in the early ’90s and more than 1 million in the early ’80s.  It was the Tories who turned their back on young unemployed and left a lost generation, whose scars we have seen for very many years.

Labour is not prepared to turn its back:  which is why we are investing in the youth guarantee.  Labour is backing 470,000 additional youth opportunities, including through the £1 billion future jobs fund, as well as extra training and job opportunities. That is part of the youth guarantee:  which is that all young people should be guaranteed a job, training or a work placement if they have been unemployed for more than six months. The Tories oppose all this and are pledged to scrap the guarantee.

So can I thank my Tory opponents for paying for this expensive poster.  I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to put the facts straight.

Incidentally,  total unemployment in the UK is now 7.6%.  That’s not acceptable,  but its 2% lower than the EU average and only 0.1% higher than Germany.  The Tories voted against most (all?) of the measures that we put in place to save jobs through the depression.

Victor Agarwal, Labour Candidate, North Swindon.